


Liar

by embittered_ambition



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Medical Experimentation, Morally Grey SHIELD, Mystery of a sorts, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21587383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embittered_ambition/pseuds/embittered_ambition
Summary: SHIELD finds Loki.They experiment on him, they use magic-nullifying IVs. After all, they had a right to. He invaded New York. He constantly kills American citizens with his temper tantrums.And yet, something is wrong.
Kudos: 7





	Liar

Loki groaned as faint spots clouded his vision, ears ringing; he felt the odd urge to puke, to release some sort of foreign entity out of himself. But no, no that wouldn’t be enough. His magic revolted. It was all throughout the God, in every orifice.

“Sir, he’s waking,” someone urgently said.

The beeping noise in the background grew much quicker.

“W-what?” he gasped, “Get it- get it out of  _ me _ !”

He arched in the… bonds? pulling at them desperately. His body jerked and quaked. Loki couldn’t handle this, the swirling growing stronger and stronger. A whirlpool of unease.

It was eating at his magic, devouring the green as his soul cowered in fear. Loki screamed. Another poke, a needle, to his wrist. The beeping continued to get louder, and he felt more of  _ that  _ seep into his very being. 

It grew too much, and he melted into the table.

He passed out, sighing, eyes fluttering shut. Loki thought that he had heard Nicholas. Trembling, slowly lowering arms reached out desperately towards the familiar voice.

Perhaps it was simply a hallucination.

* * *

It was the beeping that woke Loki once more, and he groaned. He licked his lips with a grimace. His mouth tasted of tar. 

_ Norns.  _

His eyes fluttered open, and then closed. Then opened wide. Loki sharply inhaled when he saw metal cuffs, surrounding his appendages. He tested them out, writhing, but they wouldn't budge.

Panicked breaths escaped him, but he calmed when he heard a familiar voice.

"You seemed to have an adverse reaction to Phase 3, Mr. Odinson," Nicholas mused.

It made Loki blink, and he remembered the  _ wrong wrong- snuffing out his magic.  _ The absolute feeling of helplessness.

Loki didn't understand, he liked Nicholas. He genuinely thought he wouldn't betray him like this. His fingers trembled and he fought back tears.

"Why?" he asked roughly, pulling at the cuffs once more, baring his teeth, "WHY DID YOU DO THIS?" he screamed, black-tinged spittle flying everywhere.

Nicho-  _ Fury  _ had the nerve to look smug, "People like you are useful," he didn't say anything more, and walked out of the room, black leather billowing behind him.

White-coated doctors poured in after that, and Loki begged to be left alone- 

But they didn't, and the black surged through his veins.

"I trusted you," he said, heartbreakingly small. 

He sobbed. The disgusting sludge tarnished his very soul. 

* * *

While floating through the throes of semi-consciousness, the God had a good while to ponder, to sort through his feelings.

What he couldn't understand was that Loki didn't see it coming. He can tell those who wish to use him from a mile away. Greedy eyes, clasping fingers, straight backs, confident smirks… all the flattery…

Nicholas wasn't like that. He was blunt, honest. Atleast, he seemed like he was.

This was unfathomable. Loki thought that he had finally found companions, people he would care for without being treated as the lesser prince. Being treated as one of them.

It was cruel. To finally have a taste of companionship, of belonging, for it to all be a lie.

Loki was the God of Lies. He would throw it all away if it meant this wasn't one.

His musings were interrupted when he felt another needle breaking into his skin, and Loki didn't have the wherewithal to fight… he just couldn't anymore. 

His head tilted onto the table, and he felt the world swirl even more violently. His grip on the metal slackened, and his thoughts grew more and more jumbled.

Loki moaned in pain. 

_ I trusted him. I trusted them. _

Nicholas, Clint, Natasha, Phil, Maria… all of them.

Loki imagined quite masochistically that they were all laughing at him right now. Watching him wither away to a caricature of himself, perhaps taking pictures.

In all honesty, which is quite a rarity for Loki, he would've joined as well. It was his fault, after all, for trusting these Midgardians. He would've pointed and laughed at himself.

For being such a pathetic, trusting fool.

No wonder Thor had been given the throne.

"P-please," he whispered deliriously, eyes watering with darkening tears, "What did I do wrong?"

It was always him, it was always his fault. Why would now be any different.

But he tried, he tried. He tried so hard to be useful, to become allies with these people. Loki wanted to become allies with them. 

"I… I don't understand,"

Fingers clenched on his wrist, nails biting into his thinning skin.

"You murdered my daughter," the man hissed, "With the little invasion of yours. That's what you did,"

"...What invasion?" Loki croaked out.

The man scoffed, and thumping footsteps grew quieter and quieter.

* * *

Loki was growing increasingly insensate, and he didn't even have the motivation to fight. He simply rode the cresting waves as each biting needle jostled his skin. He whimpered when he heard the door open, and blearily opened his eyes.

Dark, leather clothing. His eyes closed, pitch-black tears dripping off his sunken cheeks.

"Nicholas-" he pleaded. He arched off the table, weakly.

Fury's eyebrow rose, lips twitching in confusion, "Loki," he greeted, "There seems to be a dilemma,"

Loki didn't even manage to appear curious.

"Why do I have you, right here; when you seem to be creating chaos in New York right at this very moment?"

Loki's eyebrows rose, the movement causing tinted sweat to drip down his temples, he sniffed weakly, and watches as…

_ Himself? _

-stabbed Natasha in the shoulder, blood spattering. She gave a snarl and kicked him in the face, twirling, before he flickered. The Mjolnir slammed through the illusion almost immediately. It shattered into faint green sparks.

Loki couldn't decide between recoiling, and jerking forward because  _ that's his friend.  _

"That's not me," he whispered, shocked. He gagged as another pulse of that… sludge oozed inside him, "I swear on my magic, he is not. I would never- I would never betray you, them. Please, believe me… I-"

Loki's breath stuttered in his chest, ribs heaving. The cry of pain echoed through the bright cell.

Fury was emotionless, the slightest bit of unease flickering into his eyes, "Betray me?" he said finally, "What do you mean by that?"

Loki's pupils shook, "I wouldn't hurt you, or Natasha," he said as firmly as he could, "I swear- you have done so much for me, I don't know what you wish me to say-" he broke off.

"Specify," Fury ordered.

It took Loki an uncomfortable minute to understand what he had to specify.

He gestured as much as he could in the bonds, "You helped me rediscover my mind. I owe you everything for that,"

Nicholas was silent, then began to walk away.

"Wait," Loki blurted, "What… was that man earlier, talking about- with the invasion?"

He turned.

"Liar," he said simply. 

" _ No-" _

The door closed. Loki felt more lonely than ever.

* * *

Loki couldn’t figure this out, he didn’t understand.

This… this version of himself was not him. No. Never. There was also something strange in how  _ Fury  _ was.

There was none of the warmth and almost-softness brought out of him, in how he cared for each of his agents with a ferocity that would surprise you.

_ He grinned wryly, placing a large hand on Loki’s shoulder, “You’re one of us now, Friggason,” He said firmly. The God looked at him with a vulnerable expression on his face. _

_ “But-" _

_ "No buts. You brought more to this organization than… most is an understatement. You brought Barton and Romanoff out of their self repressive loneliness. You do good," _

_ Oddly, those words were much more relieving than anything Odin could say. _

Loki forcibly pushed the memory out of his mind, baring his teeth and the  _ lies  _ and the nativity. His fists clenched, and he felt untrimmed nails dig into his palm; sticky black blood beading at the pressure. 

There was a reason the second stage of grief was anger.

"Get the Hel off me-"

The invading fingers didn't stop in their clinical journey, pulling out the needles. Loki relaxed, panting, suddenly exhausted.

"Bossman needs you coherent," a lady whispered, "Beats me, you are pretty talkative to me,"

The final needle was pulled out of him. His fingers were left twitching. The green inside him was already beginning to glitter, dimly, burning away at the tar pulsing inside him. Pasty skin immediately flushed a warmer color.

She walked out. Loki breathed a sigh of relief, before another pair of footsteps loomed closer.

Natasha was there, lips firm and eyes wavering in her intensity. She pushed her shoulders back, and stepped right in front of him, tilting her head.

There was bandages on her shoulder. Loki's eyes widened, a wave of concern washing through him before the numbness washed it away.

"Why did you do it?" she asked harshly, pointing to her wound.

Fury sparkled in her eyes.

"Why did you stab me?" she sounded betrayed, "I thought… I trusted you,"

Loki knew how difficult trust was to obtain, especially in this organization. Everyone had trust issues, one way or another; either gained or already innate.

Natasha had it more than most, and for good reasons. Loki counted himself among the few that she unconditionally trusted.

"No," he wheezed, "I didn't, I swear I didn't. I wouldn't hurt you," his eyes were wide, desperate; entreating, "I-"

"I don't believe you," she interjected harshly, eyes averted. A facsimile smile crossed her face, all wrong. A mockery of her bright smirks.

"I know what you can do," she murmured, "Creating another corporal golem is not that large of a leap,"

He blinked, "I've told you, creating a corporal copy of yourself is physically impossible-"

She didn't miss a beat, "Just another thing you lied about," she snarled, stepping forward threateningly.

Loki flinched back, a pained and horrified look on his face.

Natasha's face blanked, something akin to satisfaction and trepidation in her gait. Her fingers twisted before she stepped out of the room.

* * *

Sir- sir?" Natasha whispered harshly. 

The static interspaced her next words, each syllable laced with alarm. She couldn't... she couldn't understand.

She wonders if he's that great of an actor, or if he truly couldn't as well. 

"He, Loki, was not lying. I could tell,"

A gulped breath. Who it was from...? Maybe both of them had.

"Just who is this bastard?" Fury muttered. He rubbed his forehead.

Who indeed.

  


**Author's Note:**

> This is more of an open ended ending. I invite you to try and come up with an... explanation.
> 
> Is Loki lying? Did he lose his memory... is it not Loki?
> 
> The options are endless. I hope you enjoy :)


End file.
